CRANK UP THE VCR:

'GODFATHERS OF THE RENAISSANCE': Medicis as Mafia: Fanciful View of the 15th Century (ALESSANDRA STANLEY, 2/11/04, NY Times)

"The Medici, Godfathers of the Renaissance," a four-part look at the rise and fall of the Florentine dynasty that begins tonight on PBS, is an unabashedly vulgar, middle-brow gallop through one of the most important periods of Western civilization. As the title suggests, the documentary constantly likens the Medici to the Mafia. (The PBS Web site is even more shameless, referring to the dynasty as a "crime family" and putting their biographies on "rap sheets" that include mug shots and aliases of each "Capo." Cosimo de' Medici, for example, is listed as "a k a Il Vecchio, the elder.")

The series looks less like PBS than the History Channel, more like Francis Ford Coppola than Kenneth Clark. Purists may want to apply Savonarola's whip to the backs of the PBS executives who decided to dummy down a public television documentary while so many commercial networks ignore history or distort it beyond recognition.

But television, even public television, does not offer many chances to relive the 15th century, let alone show how Brunelleschi built his famous dome on top of the Florence Cathedral. The lurid re-enactments of stabbings, throat-slittings and sybaritic banquets may be hokey, but over all, "The Medici" is fairly accurate, engaging and deeply enthusiastic about the artworks it showcases. [...]

"The Medici, Godfathers of the Renaissance" is not quite history, but it is not just entertainment. It is art history told in an entertaining way, and that is not heresy, even on public television.

Not sure if it's new, but our local PBS affiliate just ran the Nova Battle of the X Planes, in which they embedded crews with Boeing and Lockheed as the two tried to win a head-to-head contest for the next fighter jet. It is an extraordinary program.

Posted by Orrin Judd at February 11, 2004 8:43 AM